Home/If Jews should give up sovereignty over Eretz Yisroel, why shouldn't America be given back to the Indians?

If Jews should give up sovereignty over Eretz Yisroel, why shouldn't America be given back to the Indians?

Dec. 12, 2012

Dear Rabbi,

It’s funny how when I told some Zionists about the UN’s current vote on Israel giving all the land conquered since 1967 back to Palestine they all gave me the hypocritical argument: “the UN are ‘reshaim, Amalek, against Israel, they have no legal rights over Israel or the fact that Israel is despised so much shows how special it realy is’ “.
But when I ask them about the 1947 vote, that they say is different because: “I like that vote and not this one”The UN’s votes are only suggestions and when they are good then they count” and “In that time jews had nowhere else to go”.
But these are all baseless arguments and just want to legitimatize Israel’s wild bloodshed wars.
But I was given an argument that: “In America we are living in illegitimate acquired land because it was stolen from the Indians, so let’s give America back to the Indians”.
So how would I answer that argument?

The major difference is that the Indians are part of America. They are still here among us, they were never sent out of the country, and they have every right to vote, run for office, do anything any other American can do. And if someone was born outside of America but could prove his descent from the Indians, I'm sure America would let him in with no problem.

The Zionists, on the other hand, don't let non-Jews who were born in Palestine, or their descendents, come back and be citizens of the State of Israel. Those who are living today in the territories are stateless and are not allowed to be Israeli citizens.

In American history there was land theft from the Indians on an individual level, Indians were moved from place to place and given reservations, but on the whole they were accepted as part of this country whenever they wanted to be. If white men had never come to America, the Indians would probably have made it a country by now on their own. Whites just helped get the job done quicker with modern technology and knowledge.

But the Zionists did not help the Arabs make a modern nation. They dispossessed the Arabs, for the most part. In 1947 Jews were 1/3 of the population, and in 1949 they were 4/5 of the population of their state (which was on about 80% of the original British Mandate Palestine).

From a Torah viewpoint, there is another major difference: America is a non-Jewish nation and non-Jews have no prohibition to make a sovereign state and govern it. In fact, for them it is a mitzvah: non-Jews are obligated to create a system of justice to enforce the basic moral standards outlined in the Seven Noahide Laws. But Jews during exile are forbidden under oath to create a sovereign state. They must submit to the rule of others, and in the case of Eretz Yisroel, the Palestinian Arabs are currently the only ones interested in the job.